I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- 6 easy miles.

PM- Wow, what a day.  I woke up at 4 am for my morning run, then quickly got ready for work and ate breakfast.  Then off to work.  When I got home, I immediately left with Marci for her doctor's appointment, after which we did some major shopping and I grabbed a piece of greasy pizza for dinner.  Finally got home at 8 pm.  Left on my evening run just after 8:30 pm- ran to the end of the canal and back, 10 miles, exactly 34:45 each way (6:57  pace) with 2 potty breaks in a 2 mile period.  Lots of bugs on the run, including the annoying catepillars that hang from a thread and get all over your clothes.  I'm finding them all over me still. 

Just got home now at 10 pm.  I have to take a quick shower and go to bed- and I have to be awake in under 6 hours to do it all again tomorrow.  I'm tired.  I'm really looking forward to the arrival of our second kid sometime in the next 10 days, so I can sleep more and have more family and running time.  Most people don't associate a new baby with more sleep, but it will be for me.

767- 250, Adrenaline- 354

5 easy miles this morning.  I had a run-in with a skunk- I was crossing a narrow footbridge when I saw something dark coming towards me.  It got within about 15-20 feet- close enough that I could see its white stripe even though it was 4:30 am and there were no lights nearby and no moon.  I quickly retreated backwards.  He followed.  I retreated.  He followed.  By this point I was in a big field, but he kept coming right towards me.  I eventually swung a very wide loop around him and continued on my way, but kept freaking myself out the rest of the run- every stick became a snake, every rock became, well, something not rock-ish.  Needless to say, my heart got a better workout than my legs.  My knee was rather painful, though, so I cut my run 1 mile short so I would have time to ice it before leaving for work.

768- 11

One nice thing about this time of year- my mileage is low enough that I don't have to run twice a day, every day, to meet my mileage goals.  This gives me a fair amount of flexibility in when I run.  I had planned to run 10 miles last night and 6 this morning, with 0 tonight and only one run Friday.  I bagged my run last night and this morning, but will do 10-12 tonight and add on 4 easy Friday afternoon, which will still give me my 77 mpw.  I won't be able to do this once I get up to 90+ mpw, but enjoy the flexibility right now by essentially being able to shift my 2 easy days/week around.

PM- 10 miles, end to end on river trail in a 50 deg sprinkle.  I felt great and was moving fast without working too hard- 37:30 up (about 30 sec/mile faster than normal), 34:00 down.  7:08 pace overall- pretty good for that trail, maybe my fastest ever.  I tried to set a personal record on the last 2 miles (actually about 1.85) for that course from the end of the singletrack to the cars- I can't find it in my blog, but I lowered my record from 11:15 to 10:50 to 10:30 two years ago.  Today I ran in 10:37- I was hoping to set my record but didn't have it in me.  Good workout.

806- 434

12 miles from my house to the canal and just into the mouth of Logan canyon.  Cody caught me on his bike at 3.5 miles and he rode with me till I turned around at miles 6 (he complained that I killed his avg bike pace).  Pretty decent pace today- 40:20 out (6:43 pace) and 38:45 back (6:27 pace)- 1:19:05 total, 6:35 pace.  Felt good, normal knee pain.

Adrenaline- 366

AM- 5 very slow, easy, tired miles.

PM- 6 easy miles with the jogging stroller.

767- 255

768- 17

Today I finally did a run that I have wanted to do for a long, long time- DJJ.  In other words, Double Jardine Juniper (http://www.utahmountainbiking.com/trails/jardine.htm).  JJ is one of my absolute favorite trails, but I have never done it 2 times in a row.  The trail is ~10 miles round trip, with 1850 feet ascent on the way out and 1850 descent on the way back- pretty technical on some of it.  Cody volunteered to come with me- he was on bike.  Normal time for the trail is 1:20-1:23, with my all time fastest of 1:18:30.  I was hoping to do both trips in under 2:50.

Great morning for a run- 40 deg or so, a bit breezy.  We started early- I left my house at 5:30 am to pick up Cody.  First time up was a moderate-to-hard pace.  I hit the start of the loop (mile 4) in 41:47 (10:26 pace- pretty typical for that climb) and did the 1.5 mile loop at the top in 13:23 (8:55 pace).  The trail was very muddy in many locations and really slowed me down- I think I did half the run with a pound of mud stuck to each shoe.  Then comes the fun downhill- 4 miles in 30:24.  I was moving at a decent clip but definitely wasn't going all out.  Total time first run was 1:25:35 (8:33 pace).  Oh, and I beat Cody- he arrived about a minute after me!  Score one for the runners!

Took a little break, got a drink and ate some food, then it was on to round 2.  Cody dropped out and did some biking in the area- he didn't want to fight the mud again.  I was definitely tired on the climb but really pushed the pace- 39:56 to the 4 miles spot, 9:59 pace.  Ran the loop in 12:06 (8:04 pace).  Then I really kicked it on the whole downhill- I was going all out the whole way, almost twisting my ankle and running into branches a bunch of times.  24:52 for the downhill (6:13 pace).  It was awesome and I was pooped.  1:16:56 for the second lap.  That means I went 1:34 faster than my old record!  Pretty amazing supposing I set my all time record after already having run 10 miles.  It was so much fun!  Oh, and my run down the second time was only 3.5 minutes slower than Cody's descent (on a bike with almost 2000' downhill).  2:42:31 totat time, 8:07 avg.

Great fun today- it was as great as I had hoped.

Ascend- 282